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Faculty News

Operations and information management professors Rose Sebastianelli, Ph.D. (pictured, right), and Nabil Tamimi, Ph.D. (pictured, left), are collaborating on two studies that continue to thread a theme that runs through the bulk of their research: how businesses and organizations should seek to continuously improve by encouraging quality, excellence and social responsibility.

“The quality movement gained momentum in the early 1990s,” Dr. Sebastianelli said. “Now, after a couple of decades, this is the way business is being done. And nearly all of our research can be linked back to quality.”

This year, the professors published a study that evaluated how consumers perceive and evaluate e-tailer, or electronic retailer, quality. This study offers practical knowledge online retailers can use to “develop more effective, targeted strategies for enhancing the quality of their websites and increasing customer loyalty.”

The study, “Improving the quality of environmental management: impact on shareholder value,” was selected as an Outstanding Paper in the 2016 Emerald Literati Awards for Excellence. The awards, distributed by Emerald Group Publishing, were “established to celebrate and reward the outstanding contributions of authors to scholarly research.”

Scranton Students Complete Summer Research Fellowships with Faculty

The University granted seven undergraduate students President’s Fellowships for Summer Research in 2016, offering each student the chance to partner with a faculty mentor. Individual projects were proposed and designed by the student and his or her mentor. Topics ranged from “natural task prioritization tendencies and their effects on gait during dual task walking” to “amoral psychological analysis of sexual desire in a hook-up culture.”

Social Sciences Professor, Students Partner with EOTC to Study Recidivism

Recidivism, or criminal relapse, has long been part of a complex societal problem.

Loreen Wolfer, Ph.D., professor of sociology and criminal justice, and her Research Methods for the Social Sciences and Statistics for the Social Sciences classes have teamed up on a multi-year project with the Employment Opportunity and Training Center (EOTC) of Northeastern Pennsylvania to study recidivism intervention at the Lackawanna County Prison.

“You can tell a prisoner to do A, B and C, but if they don’t buy into it, it’s not going to mean anything,” Dr. Wolfer said, explaining that one solution is to offer programs prisoners request.

That’s the basic idea behind the partnership, which is in the needs-assessment stage.

Preliminary findings, Dr. Wolfer said, are that prisoners’ top concerns as they near release are finding a living-wage job; using drugs and alcohol; reconnecting with family and children and avoiding problematic friends.

In years two and three, she said, the University team will assess EOTC’s most frequent programs and attendance. In years three through five, the team will look at recidivism and relate it to the fears expressed in year one, as well as program attendance or non-attendance that same year.

Leonard Champney Receives Earl Award

Political science professor Leonard Champney, Ph.D., was honored with the John L. Earl III Award for service to the University, the faculty and the wider community. This award is presented annually to a member of the University community who demonstrates the spirit of generosity and dedication that the late Dr. John Earl, a distinguished professor of history, exemplified during his years at Scranton from 1964 to 1996.

At the presentation, University President Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., described Dr. Champney, who joined the faculty at Scranton in 1979, as a “shining example of teaching as a vocation.” Previous Earl award recipient Susan Trussler, Ph.D., introduced Dr. Champney at the ceremony, calling him a “good humored and quietly altruistic colleague.” She described his service to the University as “remarkable for its range, depth and consistency.”

Caption: At the presentation of the John L. Earl III Award are, from left: University President Kevin P. Quinn, S.J.; Earl Award recipient Leonard Champney, Ph.D., professor of political science; Pauline Earl, wife of the late John Earl; Dr. Karen Earl Kolon ’85, daughter of the late John Earl; and previous Earl Award recipient Susan Trussler, Ph.D., Fulbright advisor and associate professor of economics/finance at Scranton.

Michael Allison, Ph.D., a political science professor, has long been fascinated with Latin American insurgent groups and politics.

In September, Dr. Allison presented a paper at the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia. There, he discussed the relations and interactions among the three major revolutionary groups in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala from the 1960s up to their transition to political organizations. Their interactions and affiliations were instrumental in helping achieve revolutionary victory in Nicaragua and a military stalemate in El Salvador. Since his 1997 Fulbright trip to El Salvador, Dr. Allison has interviewed numerous participants in those countries’ civil wars. To acquire greater insight and context for the paper, he interviewed former guerrillas in Guatemala in 2013 and in El Salvador in 2015.